Carroll Approach

Click on this link to watch an extended interview with our Head of School Steve Wilkins and Dean Bragonier, founder of NoticeAbility, in which Steve discusses our approach, our history, and our purpose.

The job of a Carroll teacher is to: (a) provide each child with what she or he most needs in order to become a successful and engaged student, (b) mobilize each student to become an active, self-aware learner, and (c) diminish the obstacles that impede each Carroll student’s education.

We accomplish this through careful teacher and tutor professional development. We believe that teachers need to be lifelong learners. Often we engage outside experts to give us perspective. At other times, we study essential questions on our own. One of the topics most often discussed is “What is the Carroll School Approach” and “What does it mean to be an Orton-Gillingham based school?” At Carroll, all teachers adhere to the following principles, in all subject areas, in all classrooms, and in all instruction:

Cognitive Approach- We know that our smart children will be able to use their thinking skills to create, remember, and apply effective strategies. We do not rely solely on rote learning; we actively teach children how to become good learners.

Direct and Explicit- Carroll teachers are trained to state objectives clearly so that children understand. We make sure that every skill, concept, and lesson is understood by the student before we move forward.

Structured and Sequential- Teachers design lessons based on what students learned the day before. With that structure in mind, teachers move their students from the known to the unknown, from the concrete to the abstract, and from the simple to the complex.

Teaching Approach- Carroll teachers need to be masters of knowing when to teach in a direct and explicit manner (that promotes adherence to necessary conventions, such as learning to read) and when to support an constructivist approach (that promotes student discovery, such as developing number sense). A highly skilled teacher knows which approach is appropriate for which child under which conditions.

Cumulative- Carroll’s curriculum and instruction build on top of what is solidly in the students’ skill set. We spiral back regularly to make sure that the students are maintaining their skills from previous lessons.

Multisensory- A good Carroll classroom has students talking, students up and out of their chairs, students with their hands on learning tools, students at the interactive whiteboard, and students explaining what they know.

Alphabetic-Phonetic- In all areas of the curriculum, we teach the underlying structure of the English Language as it is written to the students at their appropriate level.